Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday cancelled a trip to Afghanistan to attend a key anti-terrorism meeting, citing a previous engagement amid heightened security concerns. On the eve of a high-profile meeting of leaders from volatile regions bordering the two countries, Musharraf telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to tell him that he would not attend.
Ethiopia said on Wednesday it had killed more than 500 rebels and captured 170 in the past two months during an offensive in the volatile but energy-rich Ogaden region bordering Somalia. The Ogaden National Liberation Front dismissed the statement as an attempt by the government to lull oil companies interested in the region into a ”false sense of security”.
South Africa’s manufacturing output growth slowed to an unadjusted 2% year on year in volume in June from an upwardly revised 7,7% in May, suggesting higher interest rates may be taking effect, data showed on Wednesday. Compared with May, production fell a seasonally adjusted 3%, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
Rumours that President Thabo Mbeki has asked Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to resign could not be confirmed by the Presidency on Wednesday. Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga told the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday that it was a ”rumour with no substance” and that he had heard about it from the media.
Tracking down rape suspects has been made a police priority, Deputy Minister of Safety and Security Susan Shabangu said on Wednesday. ”One of the issues we are going to make a priority is to ensure that where we have warrants of arrest for rape suspects, the police go down and hunt those individuals and bring them to book,” she said.
Ramp meters will be installed on four interchanges on the N1 freeway this month, the South African National Roads Agency Limited said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Priya Pillay said the ramp meter would control the flow of traffic onto the freeway.
Six-year-old Steven Siebert’s murderer, Theunis Olivier, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Cape High Court on Wednesday. Handing down sentence, Judge Essa Moosa described Olivier as a cold and callous murderer. ”The victim must have endured excruciating pain,” he said.
Ethiopia’s Ogaden rebels warned oil companies interested in the volatile but energy-rich region on Wednesday not to be lulled into a ”false sense of security” by the government, saying their forces were well armed. The Ogaden National Liberation Front said the government had lost control of Ogaden. The rebels warned oil companies to stay away.
United States forces said they killed 30 people in an air strike in Baghdad’s crowded Shi’ite slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, describing those killed as militants linked to Iran. Hospital officials put the death toll at at least 13. Hundreds of angry mourners later marched chanting through the streets of the slum after the raid on the eve of a major Shi’ite holy day.
Millions of malnourished Indian children are vulnerable to disease after South Asia’s worst floods in years, officials and aid groups said on Wednesday, calling for urgent assistance. Hundreds of United Nations Children’s Fund workers rushed to immunise and supply rehydration fluid sachets to children in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar.